''Big problems'' for Iraqi Christians, Pontifical agency warns

Published: 26 February 2007

Christians are facing "big problems" in Iraq, the director of the
Pontifical Mission for Palestine's Iraq director says, while some
Catholic refugees who have fled the war-torn country say they were
safer under Saddam.

The Catholic News Service
reports that seen as allies of the West, Christians and their
institutions have become targets of extremist Islamic groups in Iraq,
say Iraqi Christians.

"Christians are facing a big problem in
Iraq. Maybe all Iraqis are facing big problems, but I am talking about
the Christians now," said Ra'ed Bahou, the Pontifical Mission for
Palestine's regional director for Jordan and Iraq.

Saddam
Hussein's regime - no matter how cruel and despotic - kept the lid on
any sectarian violence, said one Iraqi Catholic refugee in Jordan, who
asked that his name not be used. He said Saddam, a secular leader, was
especially good for Christians, as long as they stayed out of the way.

"Saddam
(controlled) everything. Nobody could say anything bad especially
(about) us Christians," he said. "Christians in the Middle East are
very good people. We are peace-loving people."

Another refugee
said that after years of living in fear and daily bombings many Iraqi
Christians felt they were actually safer with Saddam.

"We are
getting tired. When Saddam was in power there was no fighting. Saddam
loved the Christians. We were safer with Saddam; now we just leave the
country," he said.

Christians make up about 5 percent of the 1.5
million Iraqi refugees in Jordan, said Bahou, whose agency is under the
auspices of the New York-based Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

Most
of the Christians in Iraq were part of the middle class and had a
relatively good standard of living before the war, Bahou said.

At
least six Iraqi priests have been kidnapped and five Christian churches
bombed in the past few years. At first the Islamic extremists targeted
mainly Christians, but now they have turned against each other, said
one relief official who works with the Iraqi refugees.